The present invention relates to a universal electrical connector station.
Connectors for transferring signals or power between a computer and exterior devices, such as a printer, a keyboard and a monitor, are commonly assembled within an enclosure of the computer. The connectors occupy a significant amount of space within the computer thereby increasing the dimension thereof. To reduce the dimension of the computer, especially a notebook computer, the connectors are commonly disposed outside of the computer and concentrated in a station. The station connects the computer and the exterior devices by a small number of high-density cables and corresponding connectors.
Taiwan Patent Application Nos. 80113315 and 87801097 disclose two kinds of stations. However, such stations do not supply enough ports to connect with the computer and the related exterior devices, thus, applications thereof are limited. Moreover, the stations usually comprise an upper shell and a lower shell, and the ports for receiving connectors having many pins are disposed where the shells are engaged. However, the ports are not durable enough to sustain an insertion/withdrawal force of the connectors and will deform thereby adversely affecting electrical connections between the station and the connectors which may also disrupt signal transmission.